SIOUG 07 is Over, but MOOW 07 is Just Starting

First of all, I should say that the Slovenian Oracle Users Group Conference (SIOUG) has exceeded all my expectations. I had been been told many times that it was a great meeting, but I didn’t really expect such a nicely organized event. The venue, presentations, food, entertainment and whatnot were all on the highest level.

In fact, the SIOUG conference should probably be named our favourite. Why? Because Pythian had three full-blown delegates at SIOUG 07. However, I have to postpone the details until I get the photos from my camera, so I’m afraid you’ll have to stay puzzled about the identities of the other two.

I feel somewhat guilty that I didn’t blog anything during the conference, but I do have an excuse — it’s been so intense that I simply had no time. In fact, I’m typing this on the ferry to Denmark where the first Miracle Oracle Open World (MOOW) is starting today.

Some statistics: I have driven almost 3,000 kilometers in the last week — half of them in the last two days, and the last thousand just today. That means I’m quite tired, and it also explains this very short blog post. But I should tell you exactly why I couldn’t really post anything during previous three days.

First, I had to visit quite a few sessions that I was interested in. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it to all of them. I missed a lot of them on the last day, as I had to leave early to drive to Munich for early evening. I also couldn’t see either of Melanie Caffrey’s presentations because I was presenting in exactly the same slots both times. I missed James Morle’s keynote on skew and latency and one of Julian Dyke’s talks while working on a small humorous addition to cheer up the audience during our long topic-of-the-day section.

In addition, since I’m never happy with my presentations, I was tweaking them until the very last moment. This time, it was Tuomas Pystynen’s fault — the night before my RAC Connection Management presentation, he mentioned a new 11g feature (Database Resident Connection Pool) and I realized that I had forgotten to cover it. So I had to go back to my room and skip Cary Milsap’s keynote, which I wanted to see it again even though I have already that pleasure. I just like the way he speaks.

I have to stop now in the middle of the story (oh well, in the beginning) because the ferry was fast — in fact I’m already typing these lines from the cottage in Lalandia, Denmark, 30 minutes before MOOW opens. I’ve managed to get a half-hour nap, which I need very much for tonight, as you can probably imagine — particularly since my sleep last week was 4-5 hours per day, max.